Finding Sabbath

Shabbat - Sabbath - Candles

When we gathered for Bible study last Wednesday evening at Seneca Presbyterian Church, our attention was focused on the text for this Sunday’s worship. It comes from Luke 6:1-16. That text contains two stories about Jesus, the Pharisees, and the Sabbath. I was anxious to press my friends and trusted colleagues on their experience of Sabbath as retirees – something I have no ability to imagine. (I can only dream of such things!) And we did have a nice discussion about the Sabbaths and Sundays of days gone by.

But I was a bit surprised when our initial focus of conversation was on the Pharisees. The participants in this group are earnest seekers who try to not only understand scripture in its historical context but also to listen for what the Spirit is seeking to teach us today. So they are naturally caught between the Pharisees of common understanding - what dictionary.com defines as sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical – and the actual historical reality of the first century. We talked about the Pharisees as a sect of Judaism that sought to carve out an understanding of faithfulness to the Law in a time of assimilation and accommodation. We remembered that the Pharisees and their movement survived the destruction of the Temple because they had crafted a life of faithful devotion that was not dependent on the Temple. But we also remembered how the Pharisees were (or at least are described as) the enemies of Jesus.

Perhaps I’ve listened to Amy Jill Levine too many times to ignore the conversation and simply move on. Anyone who has heard Dr. Levine speak on the way Christians interpret Judaism – especially first century Judaism – knows her passion for correcting errors and crushing stereotypes. (If you wish to read more, pick up The Jewish Annotated New Testament and read her article entitled “Bearing False Witness: Common Errors Made about Early Judaism.”) The passion is not merely academic. For if we allow the image of Pharisaic Judaism to be a religion of laws where Christianity is a religion of grace, we do both faiths a disservice. And we move dangerously close to the impression of how Christianity has been characterized by our Muslim friends. “You Christians have it so easy. If you do wrong, you just ask for forgiveness and then everything is OK.”

No doubt we will talk more about Pharisees in our Wednesday night group. And the discussion will be faithful. This group has studied the Hebrew Scriptures with Dr. Levine through her Great Courses lecture series. But the question also applies to the subject at hand for this week, namely the Sabbath. We must resist the temptation to allow the debate Jesus had with the Pharisees over Sabbath regulations to color our understanding of Sabbath – for it is an essential, life-restoring gift meant for Christians as well as Jews.  Unless we are careful, the Sabbath could been seen as a burden rather than a blessing.

We’ll explore that blessing when we gather for worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church this Sunday – the Christian Sabbath. Before we do, I invite you to consider: 

•  What traditions marked Sundays in your childhood or even adulthood?
• How have they changed?
• Have the changes been a blessing?
• What has been lost?
• How can it be re-gained?

Into the Deep

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Miraculous Haul of Fish

As we gather for worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church this Sunday, it will be our turn to enter the story. We have followed the narrative of God’s great story of salvation through the Hebrew Scriptures and into the Gospels. Last week, Jesus entered the scene as we “hit the red letters.” This week, Jesus calls his first disciples, and whenever you see a disciple in any of the Gospels, you need to see us.

I've always loved this story even as I taught it to children in years gone by. We can thank Luke for including the miraculous catch of fish. Matthew and Mark don't. In their versions, Peter and his partners just "drop everything" and follow Jesus. Luke gives us something of a reason why. In Luke's story, we see the unexpected power of life with this One who calls us to follow.  

Once while working with this story for a children's teaching assignment, I was struck by the fact that Peter and those with him almost drown while hauling in that miraculous catch. That fact adds to the wonder of the story. Would you leave everything and follow someone who almost got you killed? It is a marvel, isn’t it? Consider this: Jesus had taken Peter from emptiness to abundance; from empty nets to nets full of fish. Perhaps the awe of the catch along with the power of the preaching were just too irresistible. Perhaps Peter knew that following this One – even if it meant dying - was truly the only way to find life.

When our Wednesday evening study group looked at this text, we were drawn to: "they left everything and followed him." What did that actually mean for Peter and his partners? How much of a risk was it? And if this story is about us, does Jesus ask us to “leave everything” and follow him?

What is Jesus asking us to leave behind? 

• Our security?
• Our family?
• Our identity?
• Our dreams?
• Our understanding of how the world works?

And what does He offer in return?

• A holy calling
• A new and expanded family
• A new name: Child of God
• A vision of God’s kingdom
• An understanding of the way God’s world works

 Just what do you think?

Glory to God

This Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian Church we will be celebrating worship. We will welcome David Gambrell, an Associate for Worship from the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) - our "mother" denomination. David is coming to introduce a new hymnal that our denomination is publishing entitled Glory to God. In the weeks to come, we at SPC will be deciding if this hymnal can be a tool for deepening our experience of God in worship.

Our choir will be singing one of the selections from the new hymnal that may be new to us. It is "Here in This Place" by Marty Haugen, sometimes called "Gather Us In." I once had the privilege of meeting Marty. It was at a spirituality conference at Montreat - our denomination's conference center in western North Carolina. My ministerial duties at the time were focused on education. The conference was introducing Way to Live - a book about spiritual practices for teens. That feature was my motivation for attending the conference, but I came away with so much more.


Marty was the musician for the conference. Because our group was small - about thirty - we had a wonderful opportunity to get to know him and experience much of his music. He offered us a concert devoted to the hymns and songs he has composed across a lifetime, but it was actually more of a sing-a-long than concert. As he introduced his songs and then led us in the singing, I was drawn to the depth of his theology and to his melodies. But most of all, I was drawn to the person who spoke so eloquently of the place of music in worship. After the concert, I thanked him for reminding me that the music of worship is the sung prayers of the people. His reply was, "No, thank you."

Ask any theologian from any Christian tradition and they will define worship/liturgy as the "work of the people." When we gather to worship God, we see the congregation of God's people "at work." We engage in practices that have formed and nurtured faith for centuries. We welcome each other in God's name. We praise God. We pray to God. We confess our sins. We receive God's forgiveness offered to us in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ. We hear God's Word and then seek to understand and live it more deeply. We affirm what we believe. We pray for one another. We dedicate our lives to serve God as disciples of Jesus Christ. And we sing.

The role of the worship leaders - pastor, liturgist, choir - is to help the congregation do its work. Yet  too often they are the ones perceived as the workers - or even worse, the performers. That can be especially true with music. The worship leaders who are musicians - for us our organist and choir and band - do offer to us the gift of their talents. They work hard and prepare well in order to offer that gift. Listening to them with the heart of faith deepens our faith. I once had a seminary professor who said frequently that just listening to St. Matthew's Passion was an altar call for him. So the music of worship is often the sung prayers of the choir and the organ -  and the guitarist and the drummer and the keyboardist. But if that is how we perceive the primary role of music in worship, we shortchange ourselves.

For in the end, it is what we do that draws us most deeply to God. And that includes singing, on pitch or not.

I'm looking forward to learning more about our denomination's new hymnal. I am anxious to see how Glory to God can serve us by offering the workers of worship - the congregation - greater opportunity to deepen our faith. Because when we sing, we praise God; we confess our sins; we affirm what we believe; we seek to understand and live the faith we profess. We do all that in concert - in melody - with all those who worship with us. And that, my friends, is a gift to God.

What Then Shall We Do?

El Greco - St. John the Baptist

Ah- the new year has begun! At least for the world, Christmas is over. (In the Church, we finish up our celebration this week with Epiphany Sunday.) Our decorations are packed away; our homes are less cluttered; we have returned to our "normal" routines. We are settling in for the long journey of winter - the season where nature rests and anticipates the new burst of life that is spring. 

From my study window at home, I see the forest bare. In the winter, I can see the tiny bit of lake behind our house that is otherwise hiding from view. Such a perspective reminds me that winter is a good season. It gives us a chance to see more clearly and take stock more deeply.

That may be something of what the Gospel of Luke will do for us this winter. At Seneca Presbyterian Church, we will be "with Luke" until the Sunday after Easter, which this year comes very early; only a few weeks into spring. Luke is a Gospel that doesn't hesitate to "lay bare" the realities of our lives and of our souls. It speaks the truth, but it is a truth spoken in love, so it is a truth we can hear and receive.

We see evidence of Luke's reality in the story of John the Baptist, the story that greets us this week. John is the gatekeeper of all the Gospels. In each one of them, we cannot get to Jesus without passing by John. I find Luke's portrait of John the most fascinating and rich of all. In Luke, John truly does hold center stage. (Just take a moment to read Luke 3:1-22.) We hear his preaching and his dialogue with the crowd. We hear his challenge and his fire. Just like the crowd, we are drawn to him - amazingly so. And just like the crowd, we should be changed by him: honestly confessing and tangibly embodying the reality of our salvation.

What then shall we do? It is the crowd's response to John's preaching. 

As we journey through Luke this winter, with the Narrative Lectionary as our guide, can we can make the crowd's question our springboard? 

• ·         What does a disciple do? 
• ·         What does a disciple think and ask? 
• ·         What does a disciple feel and believe?
• ·         Who does a disciple turn to? 
• ·         What does a disciple expect?
• ·         What does a disciple receive? 

 Our journey through Luke should change us if we listen intently and take what we hear to heart and to life. How? By helping us to see and understand and experience the path of authentic discipleship. John’s message and baptism provide just the beginning to that amazing journey of transformation. Jesus will provide us with the follow up challenge. Let's be ready to hear it. 

I invite you to follow along each week, reading what lies between the Sundays so that in the end, we we have taken the complete journey. A schedule is posted under the Reading Plan tab at the side of the page. For this week, the assignment is simple. Read Luke 3:23-4:13.